Dual monitors virtual desktop

Power off your VM. Go to settings>display. Change the monitor count. I have mine at 2. Power the VM back on. Right click on your desktop, choose screen resolution, you should see a second monitor in your list. Extend your desktop to that monitor.

On my system (linux) this opened up a second window with my second "monitor" that I put on my second screen. Word of advice, if you don't need the second monitor, don't keep it open all of the time. At least on my system, it was very "touchy" in that the second window would pop up even when I had minimized it.

I tried that but when I go into the screen resolution settings on the virtual machine (using the console), I only see a single monitor.

Are you using RDP to connect to your Win7 VM? If so, click on Show Options, then in the Display tab, check the Use all of my monitors for the remote session.

Since you don't tell us if you are using VMware workstation, ESXi, Hyper-V, Oraclebox etc. I'll guess.

Make sure you have increased the guest video ram, I think the default is 4Mb, depending on your screen resolutions you will need to change this - ESXi has a calculator for this when you edit settings, but somewhere between 16-32Mb will do what you need

32Mb will support dual 1920x1200 @ 32bbp

Your workstation has to be atleast Windows 7 to do it but Batmelek has the screenshot of the setting

The VM (Windows 7 Pro) is running off a ESXi 5.1. My client computer is Win7Pro using remote desktop. I set the video memory to 32MB and also checked the box to use all my monitors in the remote session.

When I access the resolution settings via the console (not RDP), I still only see one monitor. The settings in the ESXi host for that VM is set to use 2 monitors.

The console won't show on 2 monitors, you need to use RDP

James7228 wrote:

When I access the resolution settings via the console (not RDP), I still only see one monitor.

Now you never said that in your original post - but why would you want two displays on a guest using the console?

Did you install VMtools?

I also tried on RDP. I am trying to get into the resolution settings to enabled the 2nd monitor but I only see one monitor.

That might be the issue. How can I check? Is it free?

Do you see the use both monitors option in RDP, and are you enabling full screen?

James7228 wrote:

That might be the issue. How can I check? Is it free?

Is what free?

VMtools - yes

Will it help - only if they are not installed already

You don't have to do anything on the graphic adapter setting of the VM. Just check the box on Remote Desktop and connect as long as the drivers are updated with VM Tools

I think it's the VMTools that is causing it. I will install it and see how it goes. Thanks everyone.

James7228 wrote:

I think it's the VMTools that is causing it. I will install it and see how it goes. Thanks everyone.

You don't know if they are already installed?

davidr4 wrote:

You don't have to do anything on the graphic adapter setting of the VM. Just check the box on Remote Desktop and connect as long as the drivers are updated with VM Tools

Batmelek wrote:

You'll need to adjust the resolution on the local machine, too.

Not normally, I remote in and out of VM's all day sometimes using dual monitors and sometimes not and never adjust anything. Just check the box

It looks like VM Tools is installing now. I should know soon.

Sorry, I wasn't clear. If it's a new monitor and the resolution isn't quite right, the resolution will need to be set on the local machine. But only once, you're right davidr4.

W7 Pro will not serve two displays via native RDP, you need W7 Enterprise or W7 Ultimate to do that. There may be a VNC solution that would work for you, but RDP's not going to do it.

Has anyone here ever get dual monitors to work in a VM that was running Windows 7 Pro?

Yes, but not from the console, only via RDP